Reproductive Rights Today

Jennifer Vollstedt and Ariel Cavanaugh-Okhah have never met, but they are connected by fatal chromosomal abnormalities that affected their wanted pregnancies, and the stress and heartbreak that comes with it.

Two Alabama clinics are restarting IVF services after lawmakers’ hasty response to a Feb. 16 state Supreme Court ruling that declared frozen embryos as “children” paused treatments over legal liability concerns.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill into law Wednesday night aimed at resuming in vitro fertilization services in the state. Her signature came shortly after lawmakers quickly passed a bill to safeguard IVF access in the wake of the state Supreme Court’s ruling that said embryos are “children,” Alabama Reflector reported.

An East Texas pastor who persuaded officials in New Mexico municipalities to pass anti-abortion ordinances said there's nothing unusual about his actions. “I know some people would probably perceive this as something scandalous, but in reality, this is quite normal,” Mark Lee Dickson told Source New Mexico on Monday. 

A Texas anti-abortion activist and the state’s former solicitor general persuaded New Mexico officials in several municipalities to pass ordinances restricting abortion, records show. 

Anti-abortion groups, dozens of state attorneys general and more than 140 members of Congress are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to restrict access to mifepristone, one of two drugs used to terminate pregnancies.  

Alabama lawmakers fast-tracked legislation Thursday to protect access to in vitro fertilization, following national backlash ignited two weeks ago with the state Supreme Court ruling embryos are "children."

U.S. senators heard testimony Wednesday on the economic effects of abortion bans, States Newsroom reported. 

A group of U.S. Senate Democrats are trying to pass a bill that would protect access to in vitro fertilization. 

Nearly two dozen states allow people to place unwanted newborns in so-called “baby boxes.” 

Alabama resident Hannah Miles and her husband are trying to conceive via in vitro fertilization, treatment that has already cost them nearly $40,000, according to States Newsroom reporter Kelcie Moseley-Morris. 

Fallout from the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision that said frozen embryos are “children” has reached the legislature. Sen. Tim Melson, a Republican, said he’s planning to file a bill that would protect access to in vitro fertilization, Alabama Reflector reported.